Vixen Refractor Optical Tubes

More Information  · Supplied Accessories Price $1,799.00 $1,999.00 SAVE: $200.00 (10%) List Price $2,800.00 Highest Useful Magnification 199x Focal Length 795mm Focal Ratio f/7.7 Resolution 1.12 arc seconds Visual Limiting Magnitude 12.6 Aperture 4" Weight 7.9 lbs. Warranty 5 years

Measuring 32.3" long with its dew shield retracted, and weighing 7.9 lbs., it’s still a reasonably portable optical tube for terrestrial or astronomical use on your own sturdy altazimuth or equatorial mount. It is also available in several pre-packaged systems using Vixen equatorial mounts. One puts the ED103SWT optical tube on the basic Vixen Great Polaris 2 German equatorial mount (#V103GP). A second uses the advanced Vixen Great Polaris Deluxe 2 German equatorial mount (#V103GPD). This upgraded Vixen mount has exceptional drive accuracy that is particularly well-suited for long exposure astrophotography. The third puts the ED103SWT optical tube on the convenient Vixen Sphinx go-to equatorial mount (#V103SWX). It lets you observe hundreds of astronomical sights on your very first night out with your scope, even if you’ve never used a telescope before.

The scope’s optical tube measures 115mm in diameter. It is supplied with tube mounting rings and a dovetail mounting plate that fits all Vixen mounts, the Celestron CG-5 and Advanced Series go-to mounts, and the Meade LXD75 go-to mount. The dovetail can be removed so that the mounting rings can be attached directly to other dovetail plates, such as those used on the Celestron CGE and Losmandy GM8 and G11 mounts. A metal handle is attached to the rear mounting ring for easier carrying and assembly in the field.

While no eyepiece is supplied with the system, to allow you to customize your observing experience to your precise requirements, the ED103SWT has a 2" rack and pinion focuser for use with 2" star diagonals, image erectors, or wide-field eyepieces. A dual T-thread 1.25" flip mirror star diagonal that fits into the focuser’s 2" accessory holder is also standard equipment. This flip mirror lets you switch instantly between two different 1.25" eyepieces to change magnifications (or between a camera using a standard T-ring and an eyepiece) at the turn of a knob. Optional eyepieces are shown mounted in two eyepiece holders of the flip mirror diagonal in the image to the left, but they do not come with the optical tube. The supplied 7 x 50mm achromatic finderscope has crosshairs and a wide 6.8° field of view that makes it easy to locate targets of interest.

Optically the scope is excellent, with very sharp and detailed high-contrast images. The images are virtually free of spurious color due to its fully multicoated apochromatic ED optics. Mechanically, the scope is very well made and finely finished, as is typical of all Vixen products. If you need a truly excellent full-sized apochromatic optical tube to complement your existing quality mount, the Vixen ED103SWT might just be the scope you’ve been looking for.